Library Required reading Why people say yes
Decide Who It's For
Seth Godin's All Marketers Are Liars made the case that people buy the story they already believe. His daily blog has been making the case for permission, trust and the right small audience for more than twenty years. If you only read one, make it the blog.
Seth Godin · All Marketers Are Liars, and his blog · 2005; blog since 2002
What it is
All Marketers Are Liars came out in 2005. The title was a provocation, and Godin later changed it for future editions to All Marketers Tell Stories, which is closer to the point. Buyers don’t weigh the facts and then decide. They hear a story that fits what they already believe, and then they tell it to themselves. In his words:
“Stories make it easier to understand the world. Stories are the only way we know to spread an idea. Marketers didn’t invent storytelling. They just perfected it.” Quoted in the publisher’s description of the book
The blog is the bigger body of work. It started in 2002, and for many years now he hasn’t missed a day.
What you’ll take from it
Start with permission. Long before your inbox filled up, he defined it like this:
“Permission marketing is the privilege (not the right) of delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who actually want to get them.” “Permission Marketing,” seths.blog, January 31, 2008
Then there’s the idea he keeps coming back to, that people act on identity. They buy, join and stay because of who they think they are.
“People like us do things like this.” “A branding exercise,” seths.blog, July 17, 2024
Where it shows up in your numbers
Godin’s advice, over and over, is to decide who it’s for. You can make the same move with your numbers. When a few customers carry most of the value, your job is to know which “people like us” those are, tell them the story they already believe, and stop paying to tell it to everyone.
The Free Lamborghini is the opposite. It’s a story for everyone, and that ends up being a story for the people who believe in something for nothing.
Next on the shelf Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson, The Challenger Sale